3 army officers named in coffin scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday filed charges against three army officers, two of whom have retired, and also named a US firm in what has come to be known as the Kargil coffin scam.

The charges were filed in a special CBI court, with the agency saying the three officers were responsible for purchasing sub-standard coffins for transporting the bodies of army personnel killed in the 1999 Kargil conflict with Pakistan.

According to CBI sources, Major General (retd) Arun Roye, Col (retd) SK Malik and Col FB Singh, who is currently posted in Srinagar, are three of the four accused.

The fourth accused is Buirtron and Baize, the US-based manufacturer of the aluminium caskets.

The chargesheet says Buirtron and Baize won the order on an initially quoted price of $93. The firm later hiked the price to $2,500 a coffin, but still landed the order. The government lost $187,000 in the deal, besides which, the coffins were poorly made.